Bill C-8: Canada’s Cybersecurity Leap — And Why We Should Ask What It Costs
How a sweeping cybersecurity bill could reshape our telecoms, infrastructure, privacy and digital rights — and why every Canadian should read it now.
Bill C-8, formally titled An Act respecting cyber security, amending the Telecommunications Act and making consequential amendments to other Acts, is poised to become one of the most significant legislative shifts in Canada’s digital and infrastructure policy. On the surface, it aims to protect Canada’s telecommunications system and critical cyber-systems from threats. But beneath that promise lie substantial new powers for government, potentially far-reaching rules for industry, and meaningful questions about oversight, rights, and democracy. Canadians deserve to read the full bill — and bring questions to the debate.
Read the full bill here: https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/c-8
📘 What Bill C-8 Actually Is
On June 18, 2025, the federal government introduced Bill C-8 in the House of Commons. Its purpose: to revise the Telecommunications Act and to enact the new Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act (CCSPA), thereby establishing a regulatory and enforcement regime around “vital services and systems” in Canada.
In simpler terms: the bill is intended to give the government greater power over telecommunications providers, network infrastructure, and critical cyber-systems (i.e., those essential to national security and public safety). It introduces obligations for what it calls “designated operators,” expands regulatory order-making powers, and attaches monetary penalties for non-compliance.
🎯 Key Provisions: What’s Changing
Here are some of the major elements of Bill C-8, stripped down to plain language:
1. Expanding Telecommunications Policy
The bill amends the Telecommunications Act to add “the security of the Canadian telecommunications system” as a federal policy objective.
The Minister of Industry and the Governor in Council are granted the power to direct telecom service providers to do anything or refrain from doing anything deemed necessary to secure the system.
An administrative monetary penalty regime is introduced: individual providers and companies can face significant fines for failing to comply with orders/regulations.
2. The Critical Cyber Systems Protection Act (CCSPA)
Bill C-8 enacts this new Act (Part 2), which allows the government to “designate” services or systems as “vital” to national security or public safety.
Once designated, operators of those systems have to establish and maintain a cybersecurity program, manage supply-chain risks, report incidents, and comply with cybersecurity directions from the government/regulator.
The bill also provides for information-sharing between relevant parties and grants enforcement powers (monetary penalties, compliance mechanisms) for designated operators.
3. Potential Impacts on Privacy, Data Flows & Industry
The bill’s order-making powers are extensive: for example, telecom providers can be required to remove or cease using certain products or services that are deemed to compromise security.
Civil-liberties groups warn the bill could allow the government to secretly cut off phone or internet service to individuals under specific orders.
It also raises implications for international data flows. For instance, Europe’s adequacy decisions (which allow EU-Canada data transfers) may be impacted by broad new security-order powers.
⚠️ Key Concerns: What People Are Worried About
While the government frames this as modernizing Canada’s digital defences, several issues warrant public attention and debate.
a) Oversight & Rule of Law
When the government is granted broad power to make binding orders to telecom providers, impose penalties, designate “vital systems,” and direct how they must operate, questions arise: Who checks the government? What is the process for judicial review? Is there transparency in how designations are made? Critics say Bill C-8 gives too much discretion to the executive branch and too little oversight.
b) Scope Creep & Privacy Risks
Broad-based security legislation often begins with one purpose (e.g., protecting infrastructure) and gradually expands to everyday networks, communications, and data flows. The risk: normalizing extraordinary powers, reducing privacy protections, and lowering the threshold for government intervention. As some civil-rights organizations point out, Bill C-8 may weaken encryption, grant powers to freeze communications, or allow the minister to intervene without clear safeguards.
c) Industry & Economic Impacts
Designated operators under the CCSPA may face significant compliance obligations: implementing cybersecurity programs, reporting incidents, managing supply chains, and maintaining records, all under threat of penalties. For smaller companies or less-resourced sectors, this could be pretty challenging. Also, telecom providers may face orders to remove products or services, which may affect business operations and costs.
d) International Implications
Canada’s attractiveness as a data safe-haven (especially for European firms) could be impacted if the government’s new security-order powers affect data-flow frameworks or create uncertainties around privacy protections.
🔍 What This Means for You (And All Canadians)
If you’re thinking: “I’m not in telecom, so why should I care?” — here’s why:
Your communications infrastructure: Your phone, internet, and telecoms are now explicitly part of Canada’s “security” policy. The government now has tools to issue binding orders to those systems.
Your privacy: While the bill doesn’t explicitly target individual communications, the expanded regime for telecoms and critical systems means the infrastructure around your data is subject to new powers, which may affect how your information is handled.
Your business/sector: If you’re in a regulated industry (banking, transportation, telecom, energy), you or your supplier may become a “designated operator” with statutory obligations and penalties under the CCSPA.
Your democracy: Broad government power, weak oversight, ambiguous definitions and powerful order-making raise the question: what happens when “security” becomes the justification and oversight lags?
🤔 Questions You Should Be Asking
Before Bill C-8 advances further, here are some questions Canadians should be asking their elected representatives:
How will the government decide which services or systems are “vital” and become subject to the CCSPA? Will the public see the criteria or decisions?
What safeguards exist to ensure that orders to telecom providers are proportionate, necessary, and respectful of Charter rights (e.g., free expression, privacy, due process)?
What oversight mechanisms will exist? Will there be an independent review, periodic reporting to Parliament, or sunset clauses on these powers?
How will transparency be assured for decisions made under Bill C-8? Will wireless providers disclose government orders? Will affected individuals or companies have standing to challenge decisions?
What will be the costs for industry, and how will smaller companies be treated? What supports will exist?
How will international commitments (e.g., data-flow agreements, adequacy decisions) be protected given the expanded government power under Bill C-8?
How will Canadians find out if their internet or telecom service has been subject to a government order under the new powers (e.g., cut-offs, forced removal of services)?
📚 The Democratic Duty to Read the Bill
The text of Bill C-8 is available in full here:
👉 https://www.parl.ca/legisinfo/en/bill/45-1/c-8
Yes, it’s long. Yes, it’s written in technical-legal language. But if we care about the shape of our digital future, our communications infrastructure, and the balance between security and rights, this is the legislation that matters. Read it. Mark the sections you don’t understand. Ask your MP to explain them. Ask for a public-friendly summary. Ask for a debate.
🗣️ In Conclusion
Bill C-8 may be framed as simply protecting Canada from cyber-threats. But the measure of a democracy isn’t just in the threats it addresses — it’s in how power is wielded, how rights are protected, how oversight functions, and how citizens are included in the debate.
Suppose Canadians are content to let sweeping legislation like this pass without scrutiny. In that case, we risk letting our digital infrastructure become a zone of unchecked state power rather than a framework of collective trust. If we care about freedom, privacy, fairness and transparency, we cannot afford to be passive.
So: Read the bill. Ask the questions. And engage.
Because how we govern our infrastructure isn’t just about wires and data — it’s about who we are as a country.